i went to the options in vsc++.net and added the folder that had the includes in it but the program im compiling still it doesnt find the header. what do i need to do cos i thought that was it

Two choices:

Relative paths - You navigate to the header file starting with the directory that the solution/project file is in. Use "../" to navigate to the parent directory of the current directory.

So for example, if you have a header file in your C:/ folder and your project folder was C:/Proj/SDL1, then you would have #include "../../Header.h".

Absolute paths - You simply specify the entire path to the header file.

So for example, if you have a header file in your C:/ folder and your project folder was C:/Proj/SDL1, then you would have #include "C:/Header.h"